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I think it has to do with the amount and placement of fat within the meat. I believe pork contains more fat (of course depending on the cut) than the same cuts of beef. And fat gets rancid easily, so it spoils quickly.

You don't hear about aged pork, but beef has aging properties which makes it very savory. Nothing like a properly aged steak, yummm. On the other hand, pork is great smoked and cured - you don't see beef smoked and cured for many products.

If you have packaged chicken that is a day past the "use by"
date you'd better chuck it.

I had a package of home grown (not commercial) chicken that
I had taken out of the freezer and forgot about it in the fridge
for nearly 2 weeks!! Yikes!! I unwrapped it to cook up for the
dogs and wow......... not one foul odor! No slime..... the dogs
enjoyed it anyway. With store bought that would have slid out
of the package on it's own slimesickle.

According to one document I read, it's a couple of things that play into the spoilage rate. One being the pH of the meat the other being the processing practice allowing higher bacteria numbers. The higher the pH the quicker it spoils.

That would hold true with most things I suppose. We pickle with acid for a reason.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill

I used to be a meat cutter for a large chain and we meatcutters noticed that scratches & cuts from pork bones or knife cuts when cutting pork always infected easier and healed slower than the similar beef cuts.

Also, I noticed many derogatory things about pork. Everything I saw tells me not to eat pork. I love BBQ'd pork ribs, so I excuse them from the no eat list.

Nasty pork

When I first saw this thread I thought "OK it is about pigs being unclean". I immediately thought about an episode of "Dirty Jobs". Did anyone see the episode where he is working at a pig farm outside of Las Vegas? The farm gets the garbage from the cassino's restaurants and sort out the non-food items and then cook the garbage before it is feed to the pigs. It was the most disgusting Dirty Jobs episode I have ever seen. The best part of it was the owner got drunker and drunker as the day went on. I get drunk every day if I had to work there.

I was working up in Maryland quite a lot until about a year ago and I was able to dump the job on someone else. Not to long ago they had an incident where a guy killed a hog an had a pig roast for a bunch of friends. That's the story as it was told to me. Anyway, a bunch of them got sick and the state banned individuals from killing and dressing their own hogs. Maybe someone from Maryland can confirm or dispel that myth for us/me?

Guess there's may be good cause why there is no such thing as Kosher pork, huh.

That after having a scrumptious pulled pork sammich at Jim n Nicks yesterday for lunch! New joint around here now. Don't know where they came from but I recommend you try em if you have em around your area! Awesome pork BBQ!

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill

Nationwide Sponge Microbiological Baseline Data Collection Program:

Here is a URL on swine carcasses.
Regards,
Ernie

Nationwide Sponge Microbiological Baseline Data Collection Program:
Swine
June 1997 – May 1998http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Baseline_Data_Swine.pdf
FOREWORD
This publication is a compilation of data obtained from the Nationwide Sponge Microbiological Baseline Data Collection Program for Swine for the twelve months from June 1997 – May 1998. The program was initiated by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to estimate the prevalence and levels of bacteria of public health concern on swine carcasses as currently produced. The program was designed through consultation with various staffs in the Agency. The Biosciences Division (formerly the Microbiology Division) in conjunction with the Data Analysis and Statistical Support Staff (formerly the Evaluation and Analysis Division) coordinated the conduct of the program, provided data analysis and prepared this report. The microbiological analyses were conducted by the FSIS Field Service Laboratory at St. Louis, MO. Sample collection was the responsibility of the FSIS Inspectors-in-Charge without whose cooperation this program could not have been accomplished

Yes to the spoilage......... As one who cruises the meat
counter for "reduced" product I have rarely been disappointed
with beef. Pork??? Always a mistake to buy close dated.

And I thought I was the only cheap one here! Yeah, I avoid pork which is too close to the date. I do buy cured products, like bacon, past the date. $1/lb beats paying $3-4. One thing I have found (and if anyone can confirm) is that Walmart, in their superstore grocery area is very particular about the way they package their meats, and allowances for product rejection. On a mission trip to Washington state, while working at a food bank, we received a load of "rejected" meat product from Walmart, which was well before their due date. The reason? The product had come in contact with the top plastic covering of the oversize containers in which they place their meats for sale. You know, they have those black oversized containers in which they place ground chuck, or a roast, etc. If the product touches the top plastic, it is sent to the food pantry. Not that it is contaminated, but a smeared up plastic covering is apparently unappealing to the consumer, and they want their product to look its best. The food bank had hundreds of these frozen packages, and we were handing them out to the needy.

What kind of pig have the most hairy bottoms?
My wife's uncle and I raised a couple of pigs for slaughter a wile ago. He used to breed pigs to sell to 4-H kids to raise and show.

When I asked him what breed of pigs we bought at the stockyard, he said that it was fairly difficult to tell. They were more mongrel pigs and he chose them because of their body build and wasn't looking for bloodlines because they would never be bred.

Anyway, they had a few bristles on their skin, similar to most pigs. And, when we got the meat back from the processor, it was smooth and the hams were well-smoked and had a good layer of fat. It was all very yummy.

Last week, my wife brought some shaved ham back from the store and I really liked it. It could just be piled on a sandwich and was very tender.

I'd like to make some of our own because I think ours might be even more tender and full of flavor. But, where do you find hairy-bottomed pigs that would be the best to shave? Most of the ones I see are more or less bald.

And, with those occasional bristles, what do you use to lubricate the blade? I would think that regular shaving cream might give the ham a bit of a soapy taste. Could vegetable oil be used? Is it best to use an old-fashioned straight razor or are those new-fangled multi-bladed razors worth the investment?

Should I wait until the pig is fed out before I try to shave it? Or should I do it as it grows so it will get used to it and the shaving flavor will have more time to sink in?